Thursday, July 24, 2014

New Trends in Healthcare

In the ever changing landscape of healthcare, patients now
have more options on how, when and where they can receive their medical care.

Medical Clinics in
Pharmacies

Across the country healthcare organizations are putting
walk-in clinics in pharmacies to give patients day, evening and weekend access
to medical care. In Seattle, Group Health has partnered with Bartell Drug
Stores to put a CareClinic, staffed by a nurse practitioner, in three pharmacy
locations. They treat common

ailments, perform basic tests and give most
immunizations. Care is very affordable at $75 for the visit, less if the
patient’s insurance company is billed.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine gives patients convenient 24/7 access to
medical care by phone or computer. Locally Carena offers a “virtual clinic”
option to healthcare organizations and businesses. Employees of companies that
partner with Carena can access a physician or nurse practitioner through their
virtual clinic for medical care anywhere anytime.

Direct Primary
Care Clinics

In this model, employers or patients directly pay the
primary care physician a flat monthly fee for unlimited appointments. Patients
may have a small co-pay at each visit.
Frequently this type of care is coupled with a high deductible plan
(usually payable from HSA or FSA accounts) to cover expensive hospitalizations
and treatments. Doctors are paid a fixed amount to take care of a certain
number of patients regardless of how often they see them. Qliance has
effectively implemented this model in several locations in the Seattle-Tacoma
area.

Concierge Medical
Clinics

These clinics have been around for many years but are
becoming more popular as patients desire a closer relationship with and 24/7
access to their physicians. The cornerstone of concierge medical clinics is
longer visits with the doctor, same day/next day appointments for urgent care
issues and access to the doctor by cell phone after hours and on weekends. With
these added benefits comes an extra fee, typically $2000-3000 per year. Seattle is home to the first concierge clinic
MD2 (squared) which began in 1996. Today there are many concierge medical
clinics in Seattle, some now offering more affordable care.